I have to say that this week is exactly what I think this season needed. We needed to get away from the “doing what the house wants” mentality that last season invoked on us, as well as this season’s players. We needed to see someone from the “other side” win HoH and for the power alliance to start turning on each other. It got too plain and predictable, so seeing these people actually plot against each other and whatnot is a great sign for the future of this season. Of course, I may be speaking too soon, but for right now, I have to say I’m starting to feel better about this season. I think that actually has a lot to do with the fact that I STILL don’t have a favorite, STILL don’t hate anybody too much, and STILL think any one of these dipd!cks can win this season. Except for Meg. She doesn’t seem to be interested in winning all too much. But, again, you just never know how things will play out the last few weeks. We still have TWO MONTHS left in this season. Yes, you heard that right – TWO MONTHS!! The finale is September 23, so keep your panties on because we got ourselves a lot of game left…
The last episode left off with Jackie and Vanessa winning the HoH’s, and so we start off the episode with the aftermath of the competition. And we get Jackie telling us that so far “I’ve been a pawn in this game” and she’s now here to start showing that she’s not anymore. Well Jackie, I’m not so sure “pawn” is the right word. More along the lines of “useless,” “worthless,” “invisible,” or “floater” even, but now “pawn.” Hell, minus the first week, the house hasn’t even put up on the block as an actual pawn, that’s how useless you’ve been. But you get one HoH under your belt and now you’re the boss chica?!? Let’s calm those Double D’s down a bit, ok?!? Maybe you’ve arrived on the scene for a week here, but you still need to STAY HoH and/or win a bunch more comps before people start seeing you as an actual threat. And even winning comps doesn’t matter much this season (or at all with the dual HoH’s and Battle of the Block meaning there’s so many comps for people to win) until the dual HoH’s end and people actually remember who wins HoH and whatnot. So, congratulations on this minor victory, but let’s not start thinking you run the house just yet. Welcome to Big Brother 17, Jackie. You’re about 5 weeks late, but welcome aboard.
After we get Jackie bragging about her status in the game, we get Vanessa telling us she didn’t want to win, but after seeing Jackie win, she knew she had to pull out the victory like the HoH comp was some sort of layup contest she absolutely knew she’d win! But, if that was her plan and it did end up working out, kudos to her because it’s a smart move seeing as how she was the one who got Jeff out of the house, which was Jackie’s closest ally in the game. Going by Jackie’s later-in-the-episode strategy, Vanessa most definitely would have either been nominated, or been the backdoor target this week as payback. And Jackie would have accidentally gotten out one of the main players this season…
I enjoyed the convo James and Clay had while Austin did some arm dips between two kitchen chairs, about how the girls are running the house and blowing the guys away so far. How true is that?!? You don’t really realize it with these dual HoH’s (or at least I don’t) because so much seems to be going on each week, but the girls really have been winning the HoH’s every week, except for that first week with James winning. And it would also appear to everyone paying attention that the girls are at the head of the power alliance, making all of the games’ decisions on who should be the target and who should be the target the following week, and such. Of course, those targets tend to change from day to day, but it always seems to be the girls changing the bullseye on people’s backs. So James may have been on to something that a guy may be going home this week. This seems like it could be leading to a female winner this season. Of the guys remaining, it doesn’t seem likely that any of them have a powerful enough standing to actually win this game, does it?!? They all just seem like they’re cogs in the girls’ wheel at this point. And see…people think I’m sexist…here I am talking about how a girl is going to win this season and I just got done talking about how this season is starting to be good, in my opinion. So busts down all of your theories…
During the first twin twist scene of the night, Liz tells Julia that Austin tried to kiss her! Funny addition to this story, but I saw someone post on Facebook that Austin told a story about how he was supposed to be on last season, he was in sequester and everything, but then backed out because his girlfriend said she would break up with him if he did the show. I’m sure hoping that’s not the same girlfriend you have now, because she’s all kinds of breaking up with you right now!! Hell, even if it’s a new girlfriend, THAT girl is all kinds of breaking up with you!! But yeah, that leads me to this whole BS about how they bring people into seasons that were supposed to be on previous seasons and it just pisses me off. I’ve heard a few stories about this happening in the past and I just don’t think it should happen. That’s just lazy casting. Of the thousands of applications you get, you can’t find someone just as interesting as some of these people? Is Austin really THAT cool and interesting that he needed to be on the show? It just leads me to believe that all the casting events they pull are just smoke and mirrors because everyone that gets on the show just knows the right people. They’re friends of former houseguests, or people who work at CBS, or friends of agents of celebrities that CBS is doing a favor for to get that celeb on a certain show. I just can’t imagine why they’d just let someone walk away from doing the show and then come right back to them the next year to let them back on. But, I’ll move along before I get too preachy…
Speaking of Austin, we move along to what could perhaps be the dumbest move in Big Brother history outside of that joker from season 1 or 2 that gave away his “immunity” and then immediately got voted out! I say all this in general terms because I didn’t watch the show back then, but for one reason or another, I do remember watching that episode, right at that time. Funny how things work out that way, but that’s one of the only moments from the show I saw before I started watching 10 years ago or so (which about lines up with the time I started dating my now-wife, and we moved in together – you can thank/blame her for you reading my blog right now because if it weren’t for her, I’d never be watching shows like this)!! Why in the world would Austin think it was a great idea to tell Jason about Julia, and then go on to tell him that he wants Julia gone and to keep Liz around until jury?!? So, this guy who isn’t in your alliance, and you know to have a big mouth, is the person you choose to tell about the twin twist being real, and then divulge all other kinds of information about them, like how often they switch places, her name, her status, what you think about her, etc. I just don’t get where his mind is – oh wait, he’s not thinking with his big brain, it’s that penis brain again! That d@mn penis brain we have in us! That thing gets us in all kinds of messes! As men, we have no power when it comes to turning that thing off – it truly does have a mind of it’s own, hence why even when we’re asleep, he’s awake and thinking about something he likes, otherwise some men wouldn’t wake up with wet pants and the blanket pitched upward! We all think we’d be able to displace those thoughts when $500,000 is on the line, but Jesus Gheesling is proving that theory wrong this season. He wants Liz BAAAAAAAAAAD! And he definitely just threw away his chances of winning that money by telling Jason everything he knew about the twins. As if that wasn’t going to get back to the rest of the house.
When James came back up to the HoH room, I thought he was going to ask Vanessa if he could bring her mother’s picture down to the bathroom for awhile. Reminded me of Caleb from last season making creepy comments about women in the pictures as he developed instant attractions to them. I could see Austin trying to establish a backup alliance but he shared the wrong information. I did feel bad for him when his crush told her sister that she had zero interest in him.
I cannot feel bad for Austin. Austin is acting just like Caleb from last season. Crushes on a girl, and then decides how her game will go in the house, making decisions about her, without her say, or even her knowledge. Caleb wrecked Ambers chances at this game last year, all because she didn’t feel how he wanted her too. What is with these Neanderthal men – ‘grab woman by hair and drag her back to cave’? Well, let’s hope the behaviour is a manifestation in the bb house, and not what he’s like in real life. It’s just good that they’ll get Austin out before he can wreck Julia or Liz’s game. I’m not saying they’re innocent, or playing a fantastic game here, I’m just saying they should be given the choice to play their own game.
I agree, Cndgirl, that it sucks they don’t get to play their “own” game, but that’s Big Brother. In all reality, NOBODY gets to play their own game, so it’s all about adapting to who’s in the house with you and the ramifications of their actions. If you need to pretend that you like someone to feed their ego, you do it. Nobody is saying that Liz needs to make out with Austin or have sex with him or anything, but if it helps her win $500,000, I think pretending she’s interested in him for a couple months isn’t too much to ask. Now with that said, I do agree with you that these guys are taking it a bit too far, however Liz is handling it a heck of a lot better than Amber did last year…
Yeah, I was thinking that as I wrote it – that you could say nobody really gets to play their own game, I get that. Likely I’m reacting as a woman to that type of play – as the decisions/game play is not really even about the game at all – or it didn’t start out being about the game. I could go for the flirting etc for forwarding the game – that I understand. But someone planning out complete game play about MY game, when it’s someone who supposedly likes me, or someone getting so mad about unrequited feelings that they want to destroy my game, well. I think I would lose it if my game got cut off at the knees because of this reason. It’s like a child destroying a toy because they don’t want anyone else playing with it. Except these are grown men, which equates to scary/creepy behaviour, in my opinion.
I’m sure there are some triggers for men as well, on how a woman might manipulate a man in a game that would be considered going to far – a perspective I wouldn’t completely understand not being a man (or identifying as one).